Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, finds indications that procedures laid down by the bishops were not followed in relation to possible child sex abuse.
Details of an incident involving a boy and a trainee priest in a swimming-pool cubicle at St Patrick's Seminary in Maynooth are expected to feature in a legal action taken by the former head of security at the college.
Several people witnessed the incident in which a 15-year-old boy and the seminarian entered the cubicle and refused to come out when called. The boy later claimed nothing had happened in the cubicle, while the seminarian went on to complete his training and be ordained a priest. He is now working in a parish in Ireland.
Gardaí were not told about the incident at the time in contravention of the Catholic Church's own guidelines on child sex abuse, and witnesses were told to keep quiet about it. Gardaí were told about the incident only when The Irish Times raised questions about it with the Maynooth authorities last year.
Mr John Lamb, head of security at St Patrick's seminary and NUI Maynooth until three years ago, is suing his former employers for distress and damage to his health, allegedly suffered during his tenure there. He lodged his action with the High Court in Dublin in May 2001. It has been up for mention in the courts three times since.
The incident at the swimming pool changing rooms in the seminary happened in the spring of 1998, two years after publication of the Irish Catholic bishops' 1996 guidelines on child abuse, which specified that suspect cases should be reported to the Garda.
The seminarian and boy were seen entering a pool cubicle by two lifeguards at about 6 p.m. one evening. It was against regulations for such cubicles to be shared, and as the boy was not a student at either the seminary or the university he had no permission to be there at all. Both, however, were familiar faces to the lifeguards.
When neither emerged after some time the lifeguards called on both to vacate it. They were ignored. One of the lifeguards then went directly to the cubicle, knocked on its door and said: "Sorry, lads, only one per cubicle." A voice recognised as that of the seminarian replied: "Yeah, yeah, yeah", but no one emerged. It was noticed that the boy's clothes were in the next cubicle.
The lifeguards then contacted security, as is the procedure, and asked whether they should also contact gardaí. They were advised that security could handle it and were told to stall the pair inside the cubicle.
When both emerged they were detained by the lifeguards until security men arrived. The seminarian and the boy were then taken away. Mr Lamb was among those who arrived at the pool that evening.
Both lifeguards wrote an incident report immediately, as required. Within days they were questioned about the incident, separately, by Mr Lamb and Mr Colm Nelson, head of general services at NUI Maynooth and the seminary, whose responsibilities included running the pool.
It emerged that no action was being taken arising from the incident, although someone told the boy's father about it. This man questioned his son, who told his father nothing had happened.
The boy was banned from using the pool again. The lifeguards were advised to consider the matter closed and confidential, and told they ought not to discuss it with colleagues.
Conclusions of a report on the incident by Mr Lamb to the authorities at St Patrick's College have been seen by The Irish Times.
According to the Irish Catholic bishops' 1996 guidelines on child abuse, in "all instances" where it is "known or suspected" that such abuse may have taken place church authorities should report this "without delay to the senior ranking police officer for the area". And where "the suspected victim is a child" it must also be reported to "the designated person within the appropriate health board". Neither was done in this case.
Asked about this by The Irish Times for the first time last June Mgr Dermot Farrell, president of St Patrick's College, which owns the swimming pool, responded: "If a student (past or present) or any other person has been the victim of a crime, I strongly urge them to report this to the gardaí so that a criminal investigation may take place. The college will co-operate fully with any such investigation." He would not say any more about it.
Following that query from The Irish Times the authorities at St Patrick's College Maynooth contacted the Garda at Harcourt Street headquarters in Dublin about the incident, which had taken place some 3½ years previously.
Last month a spokesman for the Garda confirmed that the Maynooth authorities had made contact with them and that a short investigation had followed.
Gardaí spoke to the young man, who had been a minor at the time of the incident, and he told them that nothing untoward had taken place. "No complaint was made," the Garda spokesman said. The investigation ended there.